My favorite books based on a true story

I sat on my mother’s lap as a child to hear stories of her childhood in Appalachia—no running water or electricity, and the shame brought on by her mother’s escape from that hard life. The setting and the characterizations in Book Woman of Troublesome Creek brought back some of the memories of my mother’s stories.

I came to love the character’s adaptation to the harsh environment, their want for a better life, and the difference one person’s influence can make in a community. The spirit of survival, even with the hardest of circumstances, forced me to cherish this story. It was as if my mother had written this book or perhaps read it to me.

After a trip to Florence to see Michelangelo’s earlier works and then David, I struggled to understand the genius, his intense pursuit of excellence, and how his surroundings influenced his art.

The author set me in one of the most fascinating eras of history and made me feel as if I were an apprentice in Michelangelo’s shop. I wept to comprehend the artist and realized that perfection was not a choice for Michelangelo, but a non-negotiable burden.

As I now observe genius in a musician, a scientist, or a mother caring for an autistic child, I give credence to what I learned from Oliver Stone’s portrayal of Michelangelo.

Sometimes people are given a horrible position at birth either by economics, environmental conditions, or bad luck. The Four Winds helped me understand some of the great migrations that have occurred in this country and the motivations that inspired the move.

I came to root for Elsa, the flawed main character, who sincerely did the best she could for her son. I felt her pain, agony, and frustration when a series of bad events happened along her journey.

It wasn’t an easy read, but a necessary one to understand resilience, courage, strength, and doing what you have to do when given no other choice.

Though becoming a prisoner in Auschwitz is unfathomable to me, I became attached to the Alma and her daily sorrows and struggles to endure her life in a concentration camp.

I believe that we are given two tasks in our lives: one, to figure out why we are distinctly ourselves (our gifts), and two, to use that gift to help others however we can. I was inspired by Alma, who used her gift in an extraordinary way to make the lives of many others better. And when presented with few choices, she chose the one that would benefit others.

I was hooked from the beginning of this heartbreaking story.

I am a student of World War II since my father served in Europe and Africa over 3 ½ years (with 3 Purple Hearts). My father died before I had a chance to ask him questions about his experience in the war. To me, he was just a father. I now know what he hero he was.

In Beneath a Scarlet Sky, I imagined my father, plucked from a farm in Ohio and delivered to extraordinary circumstances that required valor, which earned his unit three Presidential Unit Citations. Even though the main character, teenager Pino Lela, was not forced to serve, he participated in one of the most humanitarian missions of the war to deliver downed pilots to safety. I appreciate the amount of research it took to retell Pino’s story.